I'm really glad they included his AWA matches. Those couple matches with Bockwinkle were super hot. The crowd was ready to tear the place down. Vern deserved to go bust for being dumb enough not to make Hogan world champion.

What does the release of this set say about the chances of seeing Hogan-Austin at WM22? I'm assuming that since we have the match listing, the release date is going to be sometime late 1Q / early 2Q 2006. Surely, a match with Austin would belong on a set like this, and not on Ultimate Anthology 2: Oops, We Forgot This One Match - Now Buy This Set Again. I guess my question is: are we seeing Hogan-Austin this year or not?

We are not. D-Melt summarizes it as Austin is probably not going to be at the show at all and right now they have nothing for Hogan, but since Hogan Knows Best II comes out at the same time, it would be mutually beneficial for him to be involved.

I'm there, too. Believe it or not I have yet to see Sting/Hogan from Starrcade '97, even though it was, y'know, probably the biggest match in WCW history. (And naturally, WCW found a way to screw it up big-time-- they should have had Sting squash Hogan).

Colour me underwhelmed. Perhaps as the resident Hogan mark of the board, my standards are too high but these matches won't provide a perspective of what a phenomenon Hogan became and how he got to the heights he eventually did. I am thrilled to see the loaded forearm fiasco with Andre on there, but the Antonio Inoki deal would have been sweet. Any of Hogan's Japanese stuff would have been great, since it would show a different side of him (he actually could work pretty well). Also, I am dying for that Nitro match with Bret Hart where he and Bret actually wrestled, like, on the mat. It was mind-boggling, and then one of them left the ring and some awful booking took over, but for that short time it was splendid.

Hopefully the use of Wargames: The Match Beyond is a precursor to future DVD's, specifically the Pillman one where Sid scrambles his brains on the roof of the cage.Surprised they aren't going with some of the Boston Garden/Spectrum/Maple Leaf Gardens/MSG matches, such as Hogan vs. Valentine, Hogan vs. Savage in '86 in a lumberjack match, Hogan vs. Harley Race in '87 in a Texas Death Match etc. Even a Hogan vs. Studd from '84 would be a nice change of pace, especially since 7 of the matches are Mania matches, thus they would be available on the Mania Anthology. Throw in Orndorff vs. Hogan being on the Steel Cage DVD and Iron Sheik vs. Hogan on the Stars of the 80's DVD, and you wonder whether they could have tried to go deeper on this DVD.

DiBiase said very good things about their first match in MSG on his shoot interview. I guess he really bounced around for Hogan.-------------I have the Best of Hogan in Japan, two tape set from Matt Long and it would have been nice to have:

Funk speculated in his book that Inoki was taking a nap b/c he had heat with the Yakuza.

Perhaps more importantly, and wayyyyy of topic (sorry CRZ) how the hell did a kick to the face get the criminal syndicate title: Yakuza Kick for the Japanese, Mafia kick for the Italians, Hamas Kick for the Palestinians, I presume.